Selected by the Colorado Avalanche in the second round (No. 61) of the 2021 NHL Draft, the 19-year-old defenseman got to witness in June what it takes to win the Stanley Cup when Colorado defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games. in the Final.
“It was really cool, the atmosphere in the rink, how excited everyone was to watch playoff hockey, and how good the Avs were. It was really exciting to watch,” he told NHL.com. “Seeing how hard the guys battled to win, what they had to go through to get to that point was something that really stood out to me — how dedicated the team was.”
But Behrens, who had just wrapped up his freshman year across the city at the University of Denver, was no stranger to championship-caliber hockey. He had 29 points (three goals, 26 assists) in 37 games, second among Denver defensemen and fourth in the NCAA among rookie defensemen, and was a key piece of the puzzle for the Pioneers who won the 2022 NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey national. championship in April.
“The hockey part was what I expected. I thought that I was going to be able to go into DU right away and make an impact, but I didn’t expect everything else,” he said.
“From the beginning of the season, we knew we had a really good team. We knew we had a lot of skill, a lot of really good players, but I think as the season went on, and as the team got closer, we kind of bought into the team, to each other. And I thought you know, as the season kept going, I thought we just kind of knew that we could make a run. And we had the group to do it.”
This summer has been a busy one for the 5-foot-10, 177-pound native of Barrington, Illinois. He attended the Avalanche’s annual development camp in mid-July and participated in USA Hockey’s National Junior Evaluation Camp in July and August in preparation for the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship.
“I just kind of went into dev camp wanting to learn,” Behrens said. “Even though it was five or six days on ice, I thought I learned a lot, and I’m able to take stuff away from that going into next season to improve my game. That was awesome.”
Behrens will have more opportunities to work on his game as he was named to the United States roster on Sunday for the 2022 WJC. The tournament began on Aug. 9 and runs through Aug. 20 in Edmonton, Alberta.
Despite everything he’s experienced since hearing his name called on July 23, 2021, he’s not getting ahead of himself.
“There’s always an opportunity to grow,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any rush for me right now to make a jump into pro hockey. I think I’m in a good spot for my development right now, next season, and maybe some more after that.”
And there’s also the appeal of winning back-to-back titles at Denver for the first time since 2004-05.
“We got a lot of our [defensive core] back, we got all of our goalies back, as well as some forwards who are going to make a bigger impact this year, and then I think we have another really good freshman class coming in,” said Behrens. “I think we could definitely make a run.”
.